Method of manufacturing a set-up box

ABSTRACT

A method of manufacturing a set-up paperboard box of the type having a base and a separate lid formed as short tubes closed at one end and of the same cross-sectional dimensions, and a sleeve fixed into and projecting from the base to receive the lid. Contrary to conventional boxes, the base and the lid of which are manufactured as separate items and are separately covered with covering sheet material, the present method comprises the manufacturing and the covering of a closed box, cutting the box thus formed and covered in two parts, and fixing a sleeve into one box portion.

United States Patent Verreydt et a1. Oct. 7, 1975 METHOD OFMANUFACTURING A SET-UP 2,822,970 2/1958 Froggatt et a1. 93/43 x BOX3,120,727 2/1964 211m 93/3601 x o 3,235,166 2/1966 Guyer 229/43 XInventors: Wlllem L. Verreydt, Kontlch; 3,802,325 4/1974 Bardenhagen93/43 x Gaston Alfons Van den Enden, Boechout, both of Belgium PrimaryExaminer-Roy Lake Assignee: AgfaGevaert naamloze Assistant ExaminerJamesF. Coan vennootschap, Mortse], Belgium Attorney, Agent, or FirmWil1iamJ. Daniel [22] Filed: Nov. 6, 1973 [30] Foreign Application PriorityData A method of manufacturing a set-up paperboard box N 7 1972 U d d 53 O 2 of the type having a base and a separate lid formed as mte mg om 15 ,7 short tubes closed at one end and of the same crosssectionaldimensions, and a sleeve fixed into and pro- [52] US. Cl 93/3601,93/43,993I;554lRP, jecting from the base to receive the Contrary to [51]I t Cl 2 B311; l1 4 conventional boxes, the base and the lid of whichare d 6 R 36 M manufactured as separate items and are separately g g i'l l covered with covering sheet material, the present 51 b methodcomprises the manufacturing and the covering of a closed box, cuttingthe box thus formed and covered in two parts, and fixing a sleeve intoone box porv[56] References Clted tion UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,094,78310/1937 Belsinger 229/51 DB UX 6 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures US. PatentOct. 7,1975 Sheet 1 of 5 3,910,168

7 R A R w W Fig. 2 k/OR ART Fig. 3 PRIOR/1R7 US. Patent Oct. 7,1975Sheet2 0f5 3,910,168

US. Patent Oc t. 7,1975 Sheet 3 of5 3,910,168

US. Patent Oct. 7,1975 Sheet4 0f5 $910,168

Fig. 6

US. Patent Qct. 7,1975 Sheet5 of5 3,910,168

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A SET-UP BOX The present invention relates to amethod of manufacturing a setup box of the type having a base and aseparate lid formed as short tubes closed at one end of the samecross-sectional dimensions, and a sleeve fixed into and projecting fromthe base to receive the lid. The lid is a snug sliding fit about thesleeve, and may be slid along the sleeve to abut against a shoulderformed by the open end of the base and the sleeve. Such boxes areusually made from cardboard or paperboard.

In the packaging of graphic and radiographic film sheets, it is known toenclose a stack of such sheets, wrapped in an air-tight and light-tightflexible wrapper, in a box of the type referred to. The box comprises abase and a lid, and a rectangular sleeve in the base which co-operateswith the lid to constitute a light-tight package for the sheets when thelight-tight wrapper of the stack of sheets has been opened. Thetechnique for the manufacture of such boxes has not changed for the manyyears and comprises the steps of separately manufacturing a base, a lidand a sleeve made from paperboard, of completely covering the outerfaces and the edges of the opening of the base and lid with a coverpaper in order to improve the appearance of the box, and of fixing thesleeve into the base. Said manufacturing technique involves considerablelabour and is,

therefore, very expensive. It is however suitable for rapidly changingfrom one size of box to another in the production process.

The present invention aims at providing a method for the manufacture ofboxes of the type referred to, which enables a considerable reduction ofthe cost price of the boxes while still keeping the general appearanceof the boxes which is familiar to the user, unaltered.

According to the present invention, a method of manufacturing a set-upbox of the type having a base and a separate lid, and a sleeve fixedinto the base, comprises the steps of forming two tray-likeconstructions, assembling them in face to face relationship, one withinthe other to form a closed box, covering the box thus formed with coversheet material, cutting the box thus covered from one side to anopposite side and fixing a sleeve into one box portion so that itprojects therefrom.

According to preferred embodiments of the invention, the steps offorming two tray-like constructions and assembling them comprise cuttingtwo flat sheets of paperboard to the required size, and bending thesides to right angles so that the bent sides of one tray may overlap thebent sides of the other tray, and fastening the bent sides of one trayto the bent sides of the other tray, and the cutting of the closed boxthus covered occurs in a plane which is normal to the portions of thesheets of paperboard which have not been bent.

A box in accordance with the method of the present invention has a sheetof covering material adhered to its outer faces but not to the rimportion of the base and the lid.

The invention will be described hereinafter with reference to theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1: is an exploded view of the lid,

FIG. 2: is the rectangular sleeve in unfolded form, and

FIG. 3: is an exploded view of the base of a conventional set-up box,

FIG. 4: is a perspective illustration of an opened film package,

FIG. 5: is an exploded view of a box made in accordance with the firststeps of the method according to the present invention, and

FIG. 6: shows the closed box. and the plane of cutting,

FIG. 7: illustrates the cutting of the closed box by means of a belt-sawFIG. 8: illustrates the cutting of the closed box by means of a benchshaping machine,

FIG. 9: is a perspective illustration of a box, partly broken away, madeaccording to the method of the present invention.

The usual manufacture of a conventional box proceeds as shown in FIGS. 1to 3. Flat sheets of paperboard are first cut and scored to the sizerequired for the type of box aimed at. The large sheet of board is thenseparated into individual blanks and corners are cut out. The shapingstep is accomplished by bending the sides to right angles. Thus thepaperboard parts 14 and 15, and 23 and 24 according to FIGS. 1 and 3 areformed. The size of one part is slightly greater than the size of thematching part so that the parts may be fitted together, one inside theother with the bent sides overlapping. The overlapping sides are thenfastened to each other, and according to a usual practice this fas'tening may occur by using a molten thermoplastic adhesive which isapplied to either side or both sides of said parts prior to the bendingthereof.

The comers at the formed bottom walls, that is the walls opposite to theopening in the lid and the base, are stayed by means of stays 13, 17, 22and 26. The stays are usually cut from a strong paper or plastic tapeand may be fastened by means. of a molten thermoplastic adhesive.Optionally, strips 12 and 21 may be glued to the lid and the base tofurther reinforce and fasten the outer bent side at the mentioned bottomwalls.

As the lid and the base have thus been formed, they are overwrapped withcover paper sheets 11, 16, 20 and 25 for decorative purposes. Themarginal portions of the wrapping sheets, as indicated by the brokenlines and by numerals 27, 28, 29 and 30, are folded inwardly over theopening of the lid and the base and they cover in that way thepaperboard edges at said openings.

The manufacturing of the box is completed by folding the sleeve 18 shownin FIG. 2 in a rectangular form along the vertical lines, the left andright hand vertical sides overlapping each other, and by attaching thesleeve thus formed to the base.

A complete film package is shown in FIG. 4, and it will be apparent thatthe length of the portion of the sleeve 18 protruding from the base 32corresponds almost with the depth of the lid 31, so that the closed boxmay form a light-tight container for a stack of film sheets 33 after theair-tight and light-tight wrapper 34 of the stack has partly been brokenaway for the removal of the sheets, one by one, from the box.

The manufacture of the described box is expensive because of the greatmany distinct operations which are involved therein, a great deal ofsaid operations requiring considerable manual intervention.

The method according to the present invention is based on the insightthat the number of manufacturing operations can be considerably reducedby making the box in one piece and by cutting it thereafter into a baseand a lid portion.

This method is illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. Two traylike parts 35 and36 are made from paperboard which has been previously cut and scored tothe required size. Tray 35 is slightly smaller than tray 36 so that itmay fit therein, the openings of both trays facing each other. The bentsides of one or of both trays, as the case may be, are provided with anadhesive and they are glued to each other in full overlapping relationto form a completely closed box. The corners of the box thus formed areprovided with stays such as the stays 37 and the sides of the box may bereinforced by means of strips such as the strip 38, shown in FIG. 6. Thebox is then covered with cover sheets 39 and 59. The form of the sheetshas been shown somewhat simplified as compared with the cover sheetsshown in FIGS. 1 and 3, but actually the sheets comprise flap portionsat the corners which may overlap so that the corners of the box arecovered with one, and preferably with two layers of cover paper.

The closed box 40 must now be cut into two parts according to a planeindicated by the broken line 41 (FIG. 6) in order to obtain a base and alid.

One method of cutting the box comprises the use of a belt saw machine(FIG. 7). Unlike a conventional belt saw machine, the saw machine 43comprises an untoothed stainless steel belt of a thickness of 0.4 mm,and a width of 19 mm. The machine was provided with a guide 44 fordetermining the lateral position of a box 40. The cutting of a box madefrom paperboard having an approximate thickness of 1.4 mm, could proceedat a speed of 6 m/min with a belt speed of 2300 m/min.

The cut edges of the paperboard showed no siginificant traces of frayingor burning and they had a perfectly smooth appearance. The onlydistinguishing indication which enabled one to discover the direction ofmotion of the belt was a minuscule fringe at one of the longer sides ofthe opening of both lid and base. This fringe was caused by the matblack cover paper which was provided at the surface of the paperboardwhich was present at the inner side of the box. Said fringe could bedetected by the fingernail, rather than by the eye, and therefore itsexistence was not considered to be detrimental to the appearance of thebox.

The uncovered edge of paperboard of the lid and the base of the openedbox showed a somewhat unattractive appearance, mainly as a consequenceof a marked distinction in colour between the paperboard material andthe finishing layer of the cover paper. It was considered, however, thatthe mentioned small deficiency could yet be accepted in practice for thefollowing two reasons. First, the cover paper of conventional boxes mayrather rapidly be damaged in use, and in particular, at the firstopening of the boxes it occurs frequently that part of the cover paper,at or near the edge of the opening of the lid or the base is damaged ortorn away in removing or in cutting through the label or in pulling awaythe tear-strip which seals the box. Second, conventional boxes arerecently being replaced to a limited extent by boxes made fromcorrugated fibreboard. These corrugated boxes are made in situ aroundthe stack of wrapped films, and the opening of the film packaging occursby means of a tear-strip which separates the box into a lid and a baseportion. The edges of the opening of both the lid and the base have,however, an unsightly appearance because the corrugation is directlyvisible to the eye, and the flat liners of the corrugated member are nottorn along a straight line.

As compared with this known economic packaging method, the methodaccording to the present invention produces a much more attractivepackage at a cost which is somewhat higher than the cost of the lowgrade corrugated fibreboard packages, but which is considerably lowerthan the cost of conventional paperboard packages which it almostresembles.

A second method of cutting the closed box comprised the use of a benchshaping machine. The tool post 46 of the clapper block 47 of aconventional bench shaping machine (FIG. 8) is provided with a speciallydesigned tool comprising a vertical leg 48 to which is welded ahorizontal U-shaped yoke 49. A cutting blade 50 is fitted to theextremities of the yoke and has a cutting edge in the form of sawtooths. A box 51 to be cut is indicated in broken lines and rests withits lower face on a horizontal table, not shown, and with its verticalfront side against retaining bars 52.

The intersection of the cutting plane with the upper surface of the boxas located on the machine, is indicated by the line 53, and it will beapparent from the drawing that in the position shown, the blade 50 hascut through the box to about half the width thereof. During the cuttingof the blade, the box remains firmly pressed with its vertical frontside against the bars 52, until the blade has completely out through thebox and has entered the gap 54 provided in one of the bars 52. At thatstage the lid and the base of the box have been separated from eachother and they may be removed from the machine. The ram of the machine(not shown) returns to its inoperative position whereafter a new box maybe located on the machine for performing the next cutting step. It wasnoticed that the appearance of the edges of the openings of lid and basewas slightly improved over that of the edges cut in using the machineshown in FIG. 7. It was believed that this better appearance was due tothe particular form of the cutting edge of the blade 50 causing onesmaller edge and the two longer edges of the box openings to be cut fromthe outer side of the box towards the inner side so that occasionalfringes were situated at the inner surface of the box.

A third method of cutting comprises the use of laser tool, and it wasshown that a C0 laser with a power of 250 Watts could cut through a boxmade from paperboard with a thickness of 2 mm at a speed of 15 m/min.The line of cut was perfectly smooth and neither the slightest fringe,nor any burning effect was noticed. It will be understood that thefocusing of the laser enabled the cutting through one wall only of thebox so that the cutting operation needed to be carried out four timesfor cutting the four walls of the box.

As the lid and the base of the box have been cut as describedhereinbefore, a sleeve 18 may be inserted in the-base and retainedtherein either by press fitting or by gluing. A stack of wrapped filmsheets may be inserted into the box and the box may be sealed in anyknown way, for instance by means of a sealing strip covering the entireperipheral length of the abutting edges of both the lid and the base, orby means of a label covering only a limited portion of the peripherallength of such edges.

FIG. 9 illustrates more in detail a box made according to the invention,the numerals of the different parts of the box shown corresponding withthose used in the description of FIGS. 2 and 5.

The box made by applying the method according to the present inventionis intended in the first place as a package for light-sensitivephotographic film sheets. The sheets may be graphic or radiographicfilms, the latter films bearing a light-sensitive coating on one or bothfilm surfaces. The film sheets may be separated from each other by paperinterleaves, and a stack of film sheets may be enclosed in an air-tightand lighttight wrapping under tension so as to reduce the relativemobility of the sheets.

It will be understood, however, that the method according to the presentinvention extends also to the manufacture of boxes for the packaging ofother sheets and other articles which are suited for packaging inshoulder style set-up boxes.

The invention also includes a box or boxes made by a method according tothe present invention.

We claim:

1. A method of manufacturing a set-up box of the type having a base anda separate lid, and a sleeve fixed into the base, comprising the stepsof forming two separate tray-like constructions by cutting two flatsheets of paperboard to the required size, scoring the sheets alonglines spaced internally of and parallel to the side edges thereof, andbending the marginal portions along said score lines to upstandingposition, assembling the resultant tray-like constructions in face toface telescoping relationship, one within the other, fastening theoverlapping tray sides together to form a closed box, covering the boxthus formed] with cover sheet material, cutting the box thus coveredfrom one side to an opposite side along a plane normal to the unbentsections of the starting sheets, and fixing a sleeve into one boxportion so that it projects therefrom.

2. Method according to claim 1 wherein the covered closed box is cutentirely through all four sides along said normal plane.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the covered closed box is cut bymeans of a laser tool.

4. Method according to claim 1, comprising the further step of applyingreinforcement strips over comer portions of the box before applying thecover sheet.

5. Method according to claim 1, wherein the covered closed box is cut bymeans of a belt-saw.

6. Method according to claim 1, wherein the covered closed box is cut bymeans of a bench shaping machine. k

1. A method of manufacturing a set-up box of the type having a base anda separate lid, and a sleeve fixed into the base, comPrising the stepsof forming two separate tray-like constructions by cutting two flatsheets of paperboard to the required size, scoring the sheets alonglines spaced internally of and parallel to the side edges thereof, andbending the marginal portions along said score lines to upstandingposition, assembling the resultant tray-like constructions in face toface telescoping relationship, one within the other, fastening theoverlapping tray sides together to form a closed box, covering the boxthus formed with cover sheet material, cutting the box thus covered fromone side to an opposite side along a plane normal to the unbent sectionsof the starting sheets, and fixing a sleeve into one box portion so thatit projects therefrom.
 2. Method according to claim 1 wherein thecovered closed box is cut entirely through all four sides along saidnormal plane.
 3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the covered closedbox is cut by means of a laser tool.
 4. Method according to claim 1,comprising the further step of applying reinforcement strips over cornerportions of the box before applying the cover sheet.
 5. Method accordingto claim 1, wherein the covered closed box is cut by means of abelt-saw.
 6. Method according to claim 1, wherein the covered closed boxis cut by means of a bench shaping machine.